JİTEM forced us to take up arms, claims Syriac politician
Illegal ?deep state? groups pressured Turkey's Syriac community to take up arms and revolt against the state, Yaşar K???karslan, a Syriac politician who has been living in Sweden since 1992, has claimed.
?We did not take up arms, but the deep state pushed us to. They incited Turkey's Syriacs to engage in armed revolt. A police officer who was working for the deep state killed a Syriac. They did not even allow us to participate in the funeral. Those people were focused on a single flag, a single nation and a single religion. They did not have a place in their brains for other nationalities,? remarked K???karslan.
Turkey has a Syriac community of around 100,000 people, who mostly reside in southern cities.
According to K???karslan, around 60 Syriacs were victims of unsolved murders between 1985 and 1995. ?They first killed Syriacs who were working as village guards and then civilian ones,? he said, claiming that the power behind those killings was JİTEM, a clandestine and illegal intelligence organization formed within the gendarmerie that allegedly perpetrated hundreds of other unsolved murders.
?JİTEM was a part of the deep state. All those murders were committed with the weapons and bullets of the state. Syriacs who escaped murder left Turkey and settled in Australia, Canada and the United States,? he added.
The Syriac politician said his fellow citizens had no option other than leaving Turkey because they did not feel safe in the country. ?What else could those people do? Joining the Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] was not a solution. They were not allowed to form political groups or parties. If two Syriacs met, they were immediately interrogated by the state. Thus, they had to migrate,? K???karslan noted.
He also said all illegal bodies in eastern and southeastern Turkey were controlled by the deep state. Among those illegal bodies are oil gangs, drug gangs and human and arms smuggling gangs. The illegal state has earned millions of dollars through those gangs.
According to K???karslan, the oppression of the deep state justified the emergence of the terrorist PKK. ?If they had respected the existence of people in the region and if those people had been granted some rights, then would they take up arms? Why would those people put themselves in jeopardy?? he asked.
If the state had embraced the residents of the East and Southeast, K???karslan noted, then those people would not have cooperated with the outlawed PKK.
?You are the state. If you love and respect your citizens, then they will respect you. If people receive more affection and respect from an illegal organization, then they will side with it. Both the village guards and the PKK are Kurdish, but the PKK is more compassionate. Then what happens?? K???karslan asked.
Asked about the Turkish government's recent efforts to bring more democracy to the country through various initiatives, K???karslan expressed his hope that the efforts would increase Turkey's democratic standards.
?These efforts will renew the Turkish Republic. They will help Turkey face its past,? he said, urging the government to act on its promises.
?We want a democratic Turkey. A democratic Turkey is a mosaic of languages, religions and peoples. If Turkey acts with a mindset similar to that of the first years of the republic, then it will neither settle its problems nor join the European Union. The country may become divided,? warned K???karslan.
08 October 2009, Thursday
RAMAZAN KERPETEN STOCKHOLM
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-189216-100-jitem-forced-us-to-take-up-arms-claims-syriac-politician.html
Illegal ?deep state? groups pressured Turkey's Syriac community to take up arms and revolt against the state, Yaşar K???karslan, a Syriac politician who has been living in Sweden since 1992, has claimed.
?We did not take up arms, but the deep state pushed us to. They incited Turkey's Syriacs to engage in armed revolt. A police officer who was working for the deep state killed a Syriac. They did not even allow us to participate in the funeral. Those people were focused on a single flag, a single nation and a single religion. They did not have a place in their brains for other nationalities,? remarked K???karslan.
Turkey has a Syriac community of around 100,000 people, who mostly reside in southern cities.
According to K???karslan, around 60 Syriacs were victims of unsolved murders between 1985 and 1995. ?They first killed Syriacs who were working as village guards and then civilian ones,? he said, claiming that the power behind those killings was JİTEM, a clandestine and illegal intelligence organization formed within the gendarmerie that allegedly perpetrated hundreds of other unsolved murders.
?JİTEM was a part of the deep state. All those murders were committed with the weapons and bullets of the state. Syriacs who escaped murder left Turkey and settled in Australia, Canada and the United States,? he added.
The Syriac politician said his fellow citizens had no option other than leaving Turkey because they did not feel safe in the country. ?What else could those people do? Joining the Kurdistan Workers' Party [PKK] was not a solution. They were not allowed to form political groups or parties. If two Syriacs met, they were immediately interrogated by the state. Thus, they had to migrate,? K???karslan noted.
He also said all illegal bodies in eastern and southeastern Turkey were controlled by the deep state. Among those illegal bodies are oil gangs, drug gangs and human and arms smuggling gangs. The illegal state has earned millions of dollars through those gangs.
According to K???karslan, the oppression of the deep state justified the emergence of the terrorist PKK. ?If they had respected the existence of people in the region and if those people had been granted some rights, then would they take up arms? Why would those people put themselves in jeopardy?? he asked.
If the state had embraced the residents of the East and Southeast, K???karslan noted, then those people would not have cooperated with the outlawed PKK.
?You are the state. If you love and respect your citizens, then they will respect you. If people receive more affection and respect from an illegal organization, then they will side with it. Both the village guards and the PKK are Kurdish, but the PKK is more compassionate. Then what happens?? K???karslan asked.
Asked about the Turkish government's recent efforts to bring more democracy to the country through various initiatives, K???karslan expressed his hope that the efforts would increase Turkey's democratic standards.
?These efforts will renew the Turkish Republic. They will help Turkey face its past,? he said, urging the government to act on its promises.
?We want a democratic Turkey. A democratic Turkey is a mosaic of languages, religions and peoples. If Turkey acts with a mindset similar to that of the first years of the republic, then it will neither settle its problems nor join the European Union. The country may become divided,? warned K???karslan.
08 October 2009, Thursday
RAMAZAN KERPETEN STOCKHOLM
http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/news-189216-100-jitem-forced-us-to-take-up-arms-claims-syriac-politician.html
